Mumbai’s Ro-Ro Ferry Service will take you from the city to Alibaug at fraction of a cost

Reduced travel time, reduced travel price

Your road trip to Alibaug will soon include sea-travel. Obviously, your car isn’t turning into a Bond-esque hovercraft that will float over the grey-brown waters of the Arabian Sea and get you to your destination over the next long weekend. But soon enough, in about a month’s time, just like you, your car will be able to take the ferry to Alibaug too. All of this will be made possible thanks to the Mumbai’s first Ro-Ro Ferry Service — where Ro-Ro stands for roll on, roll off. It will take passengers from Mumbai’s Ferry Wharf (also known as Bhaucha Dhakka) in Mazgaon to Alibaug’s Mandwa port and would greatly aid in easing the traffic on the highway between Mumbai and Goa. All you will have to do as a part of this service is drive your vehicle onto the vessel, sit tight while it transports you, and drive away to your resort once you de-board at the destination.

Here’s everything you need to know about how the Ro-Ro Ferry Service will work and how it will make your weekend trips a lot easier (and a lot more fun).

When is the Ro-Ro Ferry Service between Mumbai and Alibaug starting?

The Ro-Ro Ferry Service is set to launch next month. According to Mumbai Mirror, the framework for the service is almost in place. The infrastructure of the Mumbai and Mandwa landings is near completion. Additionally, the bridge that will help loading vehicles onto the ferry — the pontoon bridge — is also ready. However, the actual vessel that will be used to get passengers and their vehicles from one point to the other will only arrive in about a month.

While the current ferry will be bought from China, the chairperson of the Mumbai Port Trust, Sanjay Bhatia, has was quoted by the daily as saying that the contractor will import boats from Greece in the future.

The service is scheduled to kick-start in May 2018, once the vessel clears the trials and the appropriate safety checks.

How to book tickets for the Mumbai-Alibaug Ro-Ro Ferry Service

A part of the Government of India’s Sagarmala Initiative, which aims at developing the country’s coastal areas, the Mumbai-Alibaug Ro-Ro Ferry Service will be open for business in about a month. The Indian government and the Mumbai Port Trust have spent a collective estimated ₹150 crore on the project. However, whether the tickets will be made available by either of these entities or by a third party is still unclear. But what one does know at the moment is that the travel cost of between Mumbai and Alibaug will be greatly reduced.

According to Jayant Patil, the Peasant and Workers Party’s MLA from Alibaug, the Ro-Ro Ferry Service will reduce the cost of travel from ₹7 per km (by road) to just 25 paise per km (by sea).

Another advantage that travellers who prefer road trips will have is that the ferry service will make coastal Maharashtra and Goa more accessible. You can offload your car at Mandwa and then proceed onto exploring the hidden gems of the Konkan.

Mumbai-Alibaug Ro-Ro Ferry timings, cost and schedule

The CEO of the Mumbai Maritime Board, Vikram Kumar, was quoted as saying that the service will begin next month, in May, and will not stop even in the monsoon — which is unlike the usual ferry service to Alibaug from the Gateway of India in Mumbai. While there’s no official word on how much each ticket will cost, reports peg it at anywhere between ₹500 to ₹620.

Additionally, it should be able to decrease the travel time between Mumbai-Alibaug from four hours (by road) to somewhere in the range of 35-50 minutes. Each journey between the two landings is estimated to take about an hour — 45 minutes of which will be travel and 15 minutes will be designated to the loading/offloading of vehicles on the ferry.

Every Ro-Ro ferry would be able to hold 500 passengers and 13 crew members, according to Mumbai Mirror, along with 80 cars. However, should the seas be rough, the number of cars to be ferried will drop down to 60.

Mumbai to Alibaug ferry duration and cost

As of now, before the Ro-Ro Ferry Service takes off, travellers have to rely on the standard ferry to take them from Mumbai to Alibaug. These ferries operate between Gateway of India and Mandwa Port — the same to points that the Ro-Ro will go between starting next month — and have a travel time of 45 minutes to an hour. Additionally, a one way ticket can cost up to ₹150 per way, depending on where you’re seated on the boat. Prices for air conditioned seats are the highest, whereas seats on the upper deck usually cost ₹135 and seats on the main deck cost between ₹85 to ₹110, depending on which service you choose.

There are four major ferry service providers — Ajanta, Apollo Catamaran, Maldar Catamarans and PNP Maritime Services — that take passengers from Mumbai to Mandwa Port and then onto Alibaug by bus (the cost of which is included in the ticket) and back. Ferries are available roughly every 45 minutes. The first boat from Mumbai departs at 6.15 am and the last boat from Mandwa leaves at 7.30 pm.